A Nairobian's Perspective !

Airtel creates borderless network to make voice, data and SMS roaming affordable to travelers

2013-05-01T11:02:00.001+03:00

· In addition to allowing customers receive free incoming calls whilst roaming across Africa & South Asia, the ONE AIRTEL service will give them access to SMS and DATA at an attractive flat rate.

· Increased use of data whilst roaming makes the introduction of the ONE AIRTEL service timely and beneficial to millions of Airtel’s travelling population.

Nairobi, Kenya, 29 April 2013 - Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa has introduced the ONE AIRTEL service which will further ease the burden of roaming costs whilst travelling. The newly introduced service will further enhance communication for travelers from Africa by enabling them access data and SMS, in addition to the currently available voice roaming, at a flat attractive rate whilst travelling within Africa and South Asia.

Commenting on the service, Andre Beyers, Chief Marketing Officer for Airtel’s operations in Africa, said: “Data usage has increased exponentially over the past few years, alongside the growing number of smart phones. There are an increasing number of excellent apps that can be used whilst on the go internationally. By introducing a flat and attractive roaming rate for data and SMS use, Airtel will help lower the communication cost for millions of frequent business and leisure travelers across the countries that we operate in.”

Airtel customers will not need to register or buy new SIM cards, as they are automatically enrolled in the ONE AIRTEL service. In addition to enjoying flat roaming tariffs for data and SMS, they will also be treated as local consumers so pay local rates whenever they travel to nations where Airtel operates in. The service is available in Airtel’s operations across Africa in Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In South Asia, Airtel is in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Mr. Beyers added “Whilst travelling, customers will feel right at home because they will be able to use their Airtel SIM cards in the host country. Airtel customers will also receive calls for free and have the opportunity to recharge their phone credit by using the host country’s top up vouchers. There is a nominal mark up on the local rate to cover for exchange rate differences and currency fluctuations.”

The service is poised to benefit not only the customers who want to be reached on their home number whenever they roam, but also all the high end smartphone users who will appreciate using the increasing number of data applications at a flat and attractive data rate.

With the ONE AIRTEL initiative, Airtel is fulfilling its vision of creating a borderless Africa. Personal and business relationships are no longer hindered by geography. Thanks to the mobile money platform, Airtel Money, financial transactions can also be done easily and affordably across the continent.

Emirates’ travel distribution arm, EmQuest opens office in Kenya

2013-05-01T10:48:00.005+03:00

Nairobi: 28 April 2013: EmQuest, travel distribution of Emirates Airline and distributer of Sabre products in the UAE, Africa and the Indian Ocean, further expands its operations across Africa by opening a new office in Nairobi, Kenya, in partnership with Safari Holdings; providing Sabre solutions, sales and services to Kenyan travel agents across the country.

The Sabre Travel Network Kenya office will enable travel agents in Kenya to use Sabre to access a wide range of content, innovative travel solutions and help them manage their customers and grow their business further.

“Our presence in Nairobi demonstrates our significant investment in the African continent which is constantly evolving and is expected to be one of the fastest growing regions in the world in terms of travel and tourism,” said Naz Nizari, Senior Vice-President of EmQuest. “EmQuest is determined to support African growth and be part of the continent’s economic expansion by providing agents across East Africa with an excellent GDS (Global Distribution System) and innovative travel-related services that add value to their business.”
Customers of Sabre will be supported by a local support team, located in the region and benefit from the out-of-hours support provided by EmQuest’s network.

Sabre team led by Nazma Jamal, Managing Director for Sabre East Africa (4th left) when they met travel agents in Nairobi.

“With the combined support of our partners, dedicated teams and strength of our local infrastructure, we are confident that Sabre operations will grow and prosper across East Africa. This new expansion reflects our excitement and commitment to expand and explore new dimensions with the agents in this fast-growing region,” said Nazma Jamal, Managing Director for Sabre East Africa, who will be responsible for both the distribution of Sabre and the management of teams in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Agents were able to experience the Sabre products and speak to representatives of EmQuest and Sabre Kenya on Friday, 26 April, at a special industry event called Karibuni Sabre at the Best Western Premier Nairobi.

Sabre enters the market with its award-winning Sabre Red total travel solution, designed for corporate and leisure travel agencies to manage every part of their business. At the heart of this is the Sabre Red Workspace, a highly configurable platform for travel agencies to shop, book and manage travel, while delivering excellent customer service.

Sabre’s new graphical view in the Sabre Red Workspace provides agents the option to shop, book and manage travel in a graphical setting. Using this, agents will be able to book air, car and hotel using format-free, point-and-click functionality, making training on the Sabre system, whether for a novice or seasoned agent, simple and easy. More experienced agents can speed through bookings using both the new graphical view and traditional ’classic view’ format. The company will also launch a range of mobile, social media, business intelligence, travel security, and efficiency tools for agencies.

Committed to the highest standards of excellence, EmQuest, a division of the Emirates Group, is the sole distributer of Sabre products in the United Arab Emirates, increasing its Sabre market share from 14 to 40% in in a three year span. In addition to extending the products to agencies, EmQuest is investing in regional distribution solutions to provide content such as tour holidays, travel insurance, mid-back office solutions and online booking solutions to provide agencies with a single, powerful platform to help serve their clients. EmQuest and Sabre have continuously reinforced their commitment to continuously invest and grow in the Middle East and African markets.

Samsung Galaxy S4 phones will soon be available in over 140 Airtel outlets across Africa

2013-05-01T10:46:00.001+03:00

· The world’s fourth largest mobile operator will make the coveted smartphone available across Africa

· Airtel will offer 3 months free data plans to the customers who buy the Samsung Galaxy S4 handsets

Nairobi, Kenya, April, 25^th 2013 – Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), a leading telecommunications service provider with operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa, has remained steadfastly committed to providing its customers with cutting edge services. Beginning early May, consumers will have the opportunity to buy the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphones in all Airtel outlets across the African continent.

Airtel customers will not only get the chance to get their hands on the most sought-after mobile device of the year, but they will also get 3 months data to go with it. The offer is available while stocks last.

Andre Beyers, Chief Marketing Officer of Airtel Africa said: “We have responded to our customers’ demands for the Samsung Galaxy S4 and are very excited to make this ground-breaking phone available in Africa. Thanks to our 3.75G network, Airtel customers will be able to fully take advantage of all the features of this truly innovative mobile device."

Mr. Beyers added: “From a business perspective, smart phone penetration is linked to strong data growth. This is demonstrated through internal data which shows that Samsung smartphones generate twenty times more data than feature phones.”

The much anticipated handset reached 10 million pre-orders in the first two weeks after its announcement. George Ferreira, Vice President and COO of Samsung Electronics, Africa says: “We are extremely happy to be partnering with Airtel across Africa, bringing the Samsung Galaxy S4 to their customers. We are confident that Airtel customers will greatly benefit from the data offering with the S4 ”

The Samsung GALAXY S4 is all about ‘togetherness’. It overcomes barriers of distance by enabling friends share screens, as well as explore each other’s favorite music, files and games.

Every picture taken on the Samsung GALAXY S4 can come with sound. The smartphone captures all the action and enables users relive all those exciting memories. As a real life companion, the new Samsung GALAXY S4 cares enough to monitor the health and well-being of its owner. By monitoring fitness levels during workouts and throughout the day, the device can help achieve fitness goals.

Emirates launches as-it-happens television viewing ‘ice TV’

2013-02-19T15:00:00.000+03:00

19 February, 2013 – Emirates, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, has launched ‘ice TV Live’ as part of its on-going efforts to provide the latest in on-board entertainment. Emirates will now offer up to four channels of as-it-happens television viewing.

ice TV Live offers passengers four TV channels to select from: BBC World News in English, BBC Arabic, Euronews and, for sports fans, Sport24 - a channel dedicated to major sports events around the world.

A major sponsor of renowned global sporting events, Emirates recognizes the power of sport and its ability to connect people from around the world. A dedicated channel which provides coverage of major sporting events is a key part of the TV channel line-up. February’s Sport24 highlights include English Premier League and Bundesliga football matches. Coverage of more events will be announced soon, but 2013 will feature coverage of the Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open Tennis, ATP Tour Masters 1000 Series, ATP World Tour Finals, US Open Golf, and the British and Irish Lions Tour. In line with this week’s announcement of a five year agreement appointing Emirates as a Global Partner of Formula 1® starting with the imminent 2013 season, ice TV Live will also include coverage of Formula 1; ensuring sports fans on Emirates miss none of the action.

“Installing the type of satellite communication that allows live TV on an aircraft is no easy feat,” explained Adel Al Redha, Emirates Executive Vice-President of Engineering and Operations. “Emirates continues to enhance the features of its inflight entertainment system with its partner Panasonic.”

The ice TV Live channels will also complement the full range of Emirates entertainment and communications options. Emirates was the first airline to introduce usage of GSM telephone on its aircraft and expanded this to the use of Wi-Fi and now live TV channels. With this latest addition, Emirates now offers Wi-Fi on 32 aircraft including all A380s, plus mobile phone use on 98 Boeing 777, Airbus A330-200, A340-300/500 and A380 aircraft.

Emirates is committed to providing the most connectivity, maximum comfort and most engaging in-flight entertainment in the skies. The ice TV Live news channels enhance Emirates existing live BBC text news headlines introduced in 2003 - which made Emirates the first airline in the world to offer such live news updates.

The new ice TV Live follows an incredible year of Emirates ‘firsts’ for inflight entertainment and communications. In 2012 alone, Emirates introduced touch TV screens similar to that found on tablets, bigger personal TV screens (27-inch in First Class, 20-inch in Business Class and 12.1 inch in Economy Class – with high definition (HD) resolution), and the introduction of mobile phone use for the first time on A380 aircraft.

2013 will build upon Emirates’ reputation for equipment and content innovation. In addition to ice TV Live, mobile phone use and Wi-Fi to Boeing 777s, the entire ice-equipped fleet will see improvements in the first few months of the year that include more music and more types of music than ever before, more Arabic TV and films on-board, the introduction of African movies, and a dedicated CBeebies channel for younger flyers.

Was the AU Panel of Wise -Unwise on Kenya Pre-election Assessment?

2013-02-01T20:22:00.002+03:00

Was the African Union Panel of the Wise and the COMESA/IGAD committee of elders unwise in their assessment of whether Kenya is ready for peaceful elections #choice2013 ?

A priori ,from the reporting of the Kenyan Daily Nation Article entitled "Kenya ready for peaceful elections-panel" it may seem so.But wait a minute Kenya's media houses have been known for sensational reporting was this perhaps one such instance?I cannot say that with certainty as the author actually quotes Dr Simbi Mubako of Comesa as having said "following our assessment, we get the impression that Kenyan people are ready to conduct these elections in a peaceful and free manner that is dignified"

I was just about to forcefully rebut the opinion of the team with cogent evidence of a Country now waiting with anxious baited breath and properly so as evidenced in the violence, confusion,corruption,bribery and un-democratic manipulation witnessed during the recently held nomination primaries.The hard fact is that the Country and its populace is little or ill prepared for the task before it.
Common sense however dictated that i first read the Communique from the team before i issued the rebuttal. A close look at the communique indicates that the committee has not given the Kenyan republic a clean bill of health as the head to the elections in March 2013.

While the Panel applauds "the strides made during the last 5 years to address some of the structural causes of the [2008] post election violence...the positive impact of the new Constitution and the growing confidence in key institutions that have undergone reforms,notably the judiciary and the security sectors" .It urges that, and this is the point that " closer attention" be paid to "security sector,media role and responsibilities,civic and voter education,and the management of post election phase including transparency in tallying,professionalism in reporting and management of electoral victory and failure".Their opinion falls short of a clean bill of health, there is not even an iota of a conclusion that Kenya is ready.Rather the thinly veiled warning is for the Country and its institutions to tread carefully and watch out for pitfalls that have been identified within the one week period that the AU panel and committee of elders had to assess the state of preparedness of the Kenyan election year 2013.

In real sense they are addressing areas that many sensible and peace loving Kenyans are apprehensive have not been given due concern that they rightfully merit especially after Kenya being on the precipice of violence and anarchy at the last election.It is important to note that at present Kenya is still balkanized on a tribal and political basis. There is still great intolerance in various parts of the Country to political ideals at variance with those belonging political/tribal leaders from the particular regions.You can almost determine to a person their candidate of choice dependent on the region they come from.At the same time, the campaigns hardly focus on the real issues but on name calling,political vitriol, threats and dares and the likes of what was witnessed some years back save for a sniff of restraint due to the ICC snare.

A wise man once said ,"if you always do things the way you have always done-you will always get the same results you ve always had-in other words expect the same results" and that's true,The truth is even if the elections proceed with no major skirmish...deep in their conscious thoughts Kenyan are at a state of hostility and suspicion with each other based on such insignificant issue as tribe,language, colour or religion.A poor man would rather vote for a known thief simply because he or she belongs to his tribe rather than a person of impeccable conduct and above suspicion as 'Caesars wife' such choice simply based on ethnicity is a sad state of affair.

As the Dutch/Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza(1632-1677) succinctly put it "Peace is not absence of war it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice" and might i add a state of mind and heart that within itself has no element of mistrust.To achieve that state of affairs, a higher and more honorable form of civic education needs to be undertaken but sadly it is beyond the scope of the current regime or human effort to attain that.